It Wasn't Supposed To Happen

26

Bondita tried well to stay away from Aniruddh till the time came to get ready. He was already dressed in his festive looking dhoti kurta she had selected for him before hand. She got ready while Aniruddh stood outside the bedroom doors.

He really wanted to talk to Bondita on Chandrachur.

"You can come in now." She knew he was standing out there. He entered the room and Bondita got concious. Not of if she looked beautiful, but her own self in general. She knew she could talk to him about anything but the subject was sure to be as much as an unpleasant one for him as it was for her.
How could she talk to him about how her family tried to sell her in name of marriage to an 80 year old man specially now when she knew what it really meant.
How could she tell him that yet another set of her family had spent half the afternoon trying to degrade her.
She had a sense well enough that her family was not looking up good and was a little embraced to talk of what her family did in front of her pati babu.

They were her family, including mama mami and sampurna, had done enough to put up a bad name for themselves and she didn't want to advertise it in front of her pati babu.

They were her family afterall. And what would her pati babu think...? They all had done enough and now was too much in amount to even discuss.

Aniruddh took a glance at her but averted his gaze. It would be easier if he didn't directly look at her while talking, wouldn't it ? He noticed Bondita about to leave when he closed the doors. This earned him a questioning look.

" I need to talk to you about something." He approached her rubbing his palm on his side nervously.

" Ji pati babu ?"

" If I ask you to do something, will you do it, just this once, without asking anything ?" He was not meeting her eyes.

What was up with him ? He knew very well she did everything he said, yes questioned it before doing but did it anyway. To think that he would have to specifically ask for her to do so made her actually want to question it.

" Ok pati babu."

He looked at her. Really ? Bondita won't question him? To be honest it made him just a little sad. It made him think if she was ok, recovered from last night...?

" Can you be...a little...you know...just little careful around... Chandrachur...?"

" What do you mean ?"

" You know... Talking to him, sitting near him, be careful."

" How...?"

This was getting difficult.
" Try not to spend too much time with him and just don't be alone with him. Please." And he hurriedly turned away leaving Bondita with no clue as to what was this all about.

His hand on the door handle, Aniruddh sighed. No. He couldn't do that to her, ask her to just go with it like a puppet. However hard it was going to be for him to voice his concern, he had to do it. He walked up to where she was still standing in front of the bed, still confused. He guided her to sit on the bed and sat in front of her, his hands on her knees for support.

" I might have...noticed something which is making me ask you this, Bondita." He looked at his hands on her knees, too  concious to look at her. " He might have been looking at you in a way...he is not supposed to." He really wished she got it.

She did. Just like her pati babu told her, a girl can feel if something, regarding this matter, is not right even without knowing what actually was wrong. She had felt Chandrachur's eyes on her during breakfast as he was in line with her peripheral vision but she was too much fretting over her saree to actually give it a head. Too occupied with her pati babu and too care free sitting with him and her family. Now looking back, she did feel it was odd.